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Lanier wedging at bench
next to his wheel.
Lanier scrapes wheelhead
to clean it.
Lanier throws, centers,
makes top portion of churn,
and cuts it off, sets it
aside. He opens die ball
with "ball opener," pulls up
cylinder, places top on
cylinder, and blends two
togedier.
WEDGING AND TURNING A
SIX-GALLON CHURN
137
What I'm doing now is wedging the clay,
getting the hard places out of it,
knocking the air out of it.
The main thing about turning a churn
or any kind of a pot is learning how to
center the clay on the wheel. Unless that
is done to start with, well, you might as
well not try it.
You make the top on this first and cut it
off and set it aside and use it later. It's
just a habit I got into just watching my
dad about forty years ago. His left arm is
cripple, you know, and the elbow had
been broke, and he couldn't bend it, and
he couldn't reach the bottom of the
churn, and it in that shape. But mine's
not broke, and it's long enough to reach
the bottom, but I just got in the habit of
doing it. And I don't see any reason to
change it now.
This rig makes the bottom and opens the
ball out at die same time; ball opener I'd
guess you'd call it. It would seem appropriate.
Now, that's the bottom. . .which
is about a half-inch mick right now. But
when that's cut loose from that block, it'll
be about five-sixteendis.
Well, you have to have a lot of determination.
. .to get in, to start, it's discouraging
when you first start. And a lot
of people's gonna be disillusioned that's
trying to learn it. I guess it would take
about fifteen years for a person to get to
where diey can really learn it, really
work at it. Of course, a man just starting
out, try to make a living at it, hell starve